Tal Ben-Shahar, internationally respected author, lecturer and Harvard university professor, was recently in South Africa for 3 days where he met with top business leaders and executives from some of South Africa’s largest corporates. Tal spoke to over 200 leaders from a variety of organisations including Standard Bank, Liberty, Elli Lilly, SAB, Old Mutual, FNB, Nedbank, Barlow, JD Group, Eskom, Multichoice and Barclays Capital; as well as organisations like Edgegrowth.

Tal’s talk focused on the topic of leadership- and more specifically about the need for a new type of leader in our volatile, uncertain, complex world.  His focus was on changing the questions we ask as leaders and highlighting strengths,being grateful and appreciating progress; and developing resilience. Based on specific examples of corporate success and best practice from around the world, he highlighted the impact as an individual, a team, an organisation and even a nation of making small changes that have a big impact. Tal is very excited to now have a permanent Johannesburg office for Potentialife, the revolutionary new leadership development programme which he spent three years, together with cofounder, Angus Ridgway (former senior director at McKinsey) developing.

Shrinkwrapping the best-of-the-best thinking on leadership behaviour and lasting change, supported by a blend of highly personalised data, live interactions and a proprietaryplatform, for the first time ever it has become possible to develop leaders on a large scale. Tal’s focus on enhancing well-being draws primarily on research from the field of Positive Psychology - the science of happiness and he is world renowned as a business consultant and lecturer who works with executives in multi-national corporations, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, as well as the general public. Tal’s areas of expertise include leadership, education, ethics, happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness.

Tal has featured on JonStewart’s The Daily Show, Fox News and CNN amongst his many media appearances. As a Harvard University professor, Tal repeatedly taught the most popular course at the university, "Positive Psychology," as well as the university's third most popular course, "The Psychology of Leadership"—with a total of more than 1,400 students.

He is also the author of a number of international best sellers including the New York Times bestseller Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment and Being Happy: You Don'tHave to Be Perfect to Lead a Richer, Happier Life which have been translated into 25 languages. Tal’s latest book Choose The Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness has just been released. Tal Ben-Shahar isthe Chief Knowledge Officer of Potentialife and theChief Learning Officer of the Wholebeing Institute He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.